Bluebird
Merchant Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector:
Mining
28 May
2024
Bluebird Merchant Ventures
Ltd
('Bluebird' or 'the
Company')
Environmental Impact
Assessment ('EIA') Work Underway At The Batangas Gold
Project
In The
Philippines
"The EIA is being conducted
to support the submission for the Environmental Compliance
Certificate needed to advance a project in the Philippines to
production"
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a
gold project development company is pleased to announce that the
work programme for Environmental Impact Study ('EIS') has commenced
at the Lobo high-grade gold mining target, within the Batangas
project area in the Philippines ('Lobo' or 'the
Project').
The work programme forms the core of
the environmental baseline studies needed to be conducted in line
with the requirements for the issuance of an Environmental
Compliance Certificate ('ECC'). The work is fully funded by
the Company's 's Joint Venture partner and consists of the
following studies:
·
Fresh Water
·
Ground Water
·
Marine Water
·
Ambient Air & Noise
Quality
·
Soil Quality
·
Flora and Fauna
To expedite the work, a team
contracted by the recently appointed E-Green Management &
Environmental Consultancy Corporation (RNS: 4th March 2024), is
establishing sampling and monitoring stations across the Lobo
area.
Bluebird CEO Colin Patterson said, "The work programmes on the ground at Lobo for the EIS
completion are underway. E-Green are moving quickly as all
parties focus on rapidly advancing the Project up the development
curve. This work will go toward the submission for an
Environmental Compliance Certificate, which together with the
Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility are the two key
outstanding compliance permissions for the Project to move into the
production phase.
"Lobo is high-grade with further upside potential where
previous trenching yielded results of up to 56.8 g/t Au reported,
and the current Indicated resource of 82,000 oz Au, on just one of
nine targets, is perceived as easily convertible to reserve
category. What is important to note is that the resource numbers
were calculated when the gold price was over half of what it is
today and therefore a higher cut-off was used. With the
potential economics now impacted by the current gold price
environment we expect a material upgrade as a lower cut-off is
applied. Additionally, the Lobo
licence area has multiple epithermal and high-grade targets already
identified for resource expansion with 15km of identified
mineralised structures.
"So, work is progressing at pace, as
we look to advance our high-grade gold projects in the Philippine
and South Korea under our free carry JV structures.
Shareholders have been patient, something that the Board has
appreciated, and recent activity in our equity is beginning to
repay them for this. Our portfolio is at an inflexion point
in terms of activity and I look forward to updating the market as
milestones are achieved."
**ENDS**
For
further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or
contact:
Jonathan Morley-Kirk
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
Email: jmk@bluebirdmv.com
Nick Emerson
SI Capital
Tel:
01483413500
About Bluebird
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
(BMV.L) is a London listed South Korea-focused resources company
centred on bringing historically producing gold mines back into
production. The Company, led by a team of proven mine
rehabilitation experts, currently has two 100% owned licensed high
grade narrow vein mining projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver
Project ('Kochang') and the Gubong Gold Project ('Gubong'), which
each have a defined route to low cost/ low capex production with a
cumulative target of producing 100,000 oz + Au per
annum.
The management team has invested
cUS$2 million personally into the Company and believe, following
analysis of historic production and exploration data, as well as
extensive sampling, geological, geophysical, and engineering
studies, there is potential for in excess of 1.5 million oz of
mineable gold in its Korean projects alone.
Kochang is an epithermal vein
deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies covering 8.3 sq km that
reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million oz of silver
between 1961 and 1975. Consisting of a gold and silver mine,
there are currently four main veins and a number of parallel
subsidiary veins vein which have been identified, as well as a
newly identified cross-cutting vein. Historic drilling indicates
the veins continue to depth below the current 150m mine and mapping
shows the veins on surface providing potential above and below the
old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a strike length
of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited. There
is potential to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to
depth, as well as exploit the already mined areas. The total
resource potential is between 550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a
range of grades between 5.2 g/t to 6.6 g/t gold, and 27.3 g/t to
34.8 g/t silver. Following the granting of a Mountain Use
permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to
trial mining.
Gubong, which was historically the
second largest gold mine in South Korea has 9 granted tenements
covering c.25 sq km. Gubong is moderately dipping with 9
veins extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a
further 250m. However, the production opportunity for Bluebird
prior to looking at deepening the mine is the 25 levels already
developed with all the remnants and unmined areas left by the
original miners. The 25 levels extend over 120km in total
length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea
Resources Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some
7.3g/t Au garnered from 57 drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.
With additional sampling, mapping, pit modelling and grade
analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an orogenic deposit, which
typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current depth of
500m, the Board believe it has a geological potential of 1 million
+ oz Au in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from
satellite ore bodies.
Additionally, the Company has the
highly prospective Batangas Gold Exploration Project in the
Philippines, where it has an agreement with a Philippine company,
whose owners have decades of experience in mining, to develop the
Project. The JV covers the entire Batangas Project area,
which has a current JORC compliant resource of 440,000 ounces,
including a maiden ore reserve of 128,000 ounces (including silver
credits). Exploration expenditure to the tune of c.$20m has already
been invested. Work is focused on completing exploration and
environmental work programmes initially targeting the high-grade
Lobo area, although there is excellent exploration potential across
the licence with high-grade targets already identified and 14km of
identified mineralised structures. The staged agreement is
based on the JV partner achieving defined development goals and
provides Bluebird with a free carry on the development of Batangas
with a view to advancing to construction.